Liberation of Sinjar

The Liberation of Sinjar (12-14 November 2015) was a decisive battle of the Iraqi Civil War fought between the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and their Yazidi Sinjar Alliance allies and the Islamic State. The Kurds and Yazidis, assisted by the United States' airstrikes on the IS militants, liberated the town and cut off the supply route from the Islamic State's Iraqi capital of Mosul to the Syrian capital of al-Raqqah. The battle was seen as a decisive victory for the anti-IS coalition, but its success occurred on the same day as the November 2015 Paris attacks, which gained substantially more news coverage.

Prelude
The town of Sinjar had been besieged by the Islamic State since 2014, when they announced a campaign of genocide against the Yazidis, a minority ethnoreligious group that lived in northern Iraq. The Yazidis were given humanitarian aid by the United States and other allied countries, and the US Air Force bombarded IS militants as they moved on the Kurdish city of Erbil. The town remained besieged for several months, with a late 2014 offensive not changing the boundaries much. However, in November 2015, the Peshmerga forces of Iraqi Kurdistan and the Yazidi Sinjar Alliance coalition decided to launch a renewed offensive on the town in the same year as other Kurdish anti-IS successes such as the capture of Tell Abyad and Ayn Issa. Sinjar was located in a strategic area due to its proximity to the Islamic State's capital of Mosul, and it was in the center of the supply routes from Mosul to the Islamic State's Syrian capital of al-Raqqah. The Peshmerga and Yazidis, supported by the NATO air coalition and other Kurdish forces (the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Rojava), gathered 7,500+ soldiers to launch an offensive to liberate Sinjar. Codenamed "The Fury of Melek Taus" by the Yazidi fighters, the offensive was to be a decisive blow to ISIS.

Offensive
The Kurds and Yazidis advanced after a barrage by the NATO air forces, and they cut off the highway from Sinjar to Syria to cut off any escape or reinforcement routes that could be used by IS. Some Green Berets and British special forces soldiers took part in the operation, and they proceeded to cut off all of the highways that linked the city to other IS-held areas. The siege of Sinjar had begun, with 700 Islamic State fighters facing 7,500 allied troops. The United States uprooted local defenses with airstrikes, and the Kurds secured the grain silos, factories, hospitals, and surrounding areas before closing in on the city.

On the morning of 13 November 2015, Kurdish APCs, humvees, SUVs, and light trucks were moved into the city for an armored offensive against the Islamic State. A-10 Thunderbolt II planes were sent in by the USAF to bombard the city with 250 airstrikes, and it appeared that the allies had walked in unopposed due to the lack of IS resistance and the thwarting of 16 suicide attacks. The battle was a decisive victory, with the anti-IS coalition weakening the Islamic State's hold on Mosul and cutting off a major supply route. The capture of Sinjar allowed for the front to be moved closer to Mosul, with the air coalition pounding the city in preparation for a possible future offensive.